Killing Station Thread!!!!!!!!

[JoJo 95]

Kill station, work table, butchering system. No matter what you call them, they are great tools for the small scale poultry farmer. If anyone uses one, post pics and descriptions of it on this thread. Looking forward to seeing what works for different people.

 

[JoJo 95]

bump

 

[cjtdtd]

I would love to see pictures also. In 7 weeks I have to kill my first 26 meat birds.
I learned a lot from this video

I plan to make homemade cones from 2 gallon bleach jugs and a plucker like this
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=130787
How long does everyone guess it will take me to process 26 chickens?
I have never done this before BUT I plan to have a very organized HOMESCHOOL STUDENTS crew to help me out.
Hopefully we will have it set up assembly line style.
Here are the stations as I see it.
1. Stuff in cones and cut neck.
2. Dip in scalding water.
3. Plucker.
4. Head, feet, and tail removal.
5. Gut removal.
6. Rinse, chill, and bag.
I hope to have at least one adult and two students at each station.
PLEASE write me back with ADVICE. [email protected]

 

[remadl700]

I made the drill plucker shown on the link. The kids call it the "CLUCKER PLUCKER" ...don't say it too fast. It works great and it was cheap. We wired it to a saw horse and as the link describes use a wire loop around the trigger and slowly turn it closed until you achieve the right plucking speed. It took about 2 minutes to pluck our first Cornish X. We had the crab pot on the propane burner and held the temp between 145 - 160 degrees for scalding. If requested I will post pics for a better explanation as to how we did it.

OBTW - We cooked this bird on the Treager "Beer can style". Everybody at the BBQ raved about the taste.

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Remove the tail with the guts, not before. You do NOT want to cut through the intestines. Pull all the innards out and then cut the tail/vent, it's all connected. If you cut the intestines, besides the awfull smell you will get all the "stuff"/bacteria inside them in your bird.

 

[Mrs MIA]

We use killing cones hung on screws on a 2x4 with a rain gutter underneath to keep the blood from going all over.
Once they are still, we remove the head. (leave as much neck as possible so you have enough neck to hold onto to remove it later)
Scald (140-145°F about 15 seconds until a primary wing feather comes out with only the slightest resistance)
3 birds (unless they're over 8 lbs) in the plucker at once (we have a Featherman Pro) and within 15-30 seconds they are clean.
Remove feet at the knee.
Gut, remove lungs, crop, neck
Place in 5 gallon bucket of ice-cold water to chill.
Repeat.

Hubby is planning on building a "station" complete with sink because we do workshops/"plucker parties" with upwards to 100 birds several times each summer. Stainless steel fish cleaning table would be the way to go!

 

[Peruvian]

The formal term is 'abittoir'.

Here's what mine looks like.

 

[awesomefowl]

nice!

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
wow nice-have directions for your wizzbanger????

 

[TyrannosaurusChix]

I plan on renting this for our first time


http://syracuse.craigslist.org/grd/1854146827.html


Then, possibly making our own whizbang for next time